The $4,050 Del Taco meal in Santa Paula

A Del Taco restaurant is now located at the former Bob’s Big Boy Express site in Santa Paula.

Rob Varela / Star staff

ARLENE MARTINEZ/THE STAR
A customer holds a receipt for $5.48, from an April 15 purchase, at a Santa Paula Del Taco. Actually deducted from his account: $5,480. The store blamed the error on a technical glitch by a third party card processor.

Michael Cole’s bill for one CrunchTada Pizza and two beef tacos came to $4,050. It was either a mistake, or one of the costliest meals in the history of Santa Paula’s Del Taco.

As Cole and several other customers who paid small fortunes for burritos, tacos and sodas found out, it was the former — an expensive technical error.

It’s not clear what caused the glitch, but it affected ATM and credit card transactions at only the Santa Paula Del Taco location, said Del Taco spokesman Brian Devenny.

“The processor is aware of the situation and has contacted banks involved,” Devenny said. “They are working together to get these charges reversed as quickly as possible.”

Roughly 150 customers were affected, on Monday and Tuesday, he said.

“There’s nothing that guests need to do,” Devenny said late Friday afternoon, adding that refunds had already started.

Cole noticed the problem Friday morning when he tried to pull $20 from an ATM and got denied. He called his bank, which told him of the Del Taco charge.

“I don’t even think I’ve spent that much in the last five years,” Cole said.

Tuesday night is when Dino DeLaO’s wife stopped by, paying $10.20 for her food. At least she thought she had paid $10.20.

She was actually charged $10,200, said DeLaO, whose banker alerted him of the odd transaction and withdrawal.

The mischarge caused his mortgage check to bounce and could affect several other bills, DeLaO said.

A frustrated DeLaO questioned whether overdraft or other fees would also be covered.

“When stuff like this happens, they don’t know what’s going on,” he said, holding a piece of paper with the phone number of the financial processor he’d been told to call.

Devenny said all charges related to the food purchases will be refunded.

At least one customer has already been paid back. Austin Dillon, of Oxnard, came in a couple days ago and bought $4.26 worth of food, which turned into $4,260. He noticed Friday morning as he did his weekly banking.

Dillon said it wasn’t difficult getting the money credited.

“It’s kind of obvious because it was Del Taco,” he said.

Although some customers were upset and frustrated Friday — at least two said they had no access to more money — others took the phone numbers and quietly left. Several made jokes.

“I don’t want a $2,200 Coke,” one customer said.

Cole, whose boss let him come in to handle the situation, headed back to work after being told to return later when the Del Taco manager was in.

He seemed confident the matter would be handled, assumed it was a computer glitch. The food’s good and the service great, Cole said of his regular Del Taco.

“It’s not going to deter me from coming back,” he said. “I’ll probably use cash from now on.”